


Live Like Champions

by shinyskarmorys



Category: Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Death, but Steven is a good egg and that's what counts, i swear i love my girl despite all the shit i put her through, this isn't even ship centric this is just SAD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:27:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27263473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinyskarmorys/pseuds/shinyskarmorys
Summary: Being Champion comes with a lot of responsibility - both to your region, and to its people. Riya's handled it well enough for quite some time now, but there are some days even the strongest shoulders can't bear the weight.
Relationships: Tsuwabuki Daigo | Steven Stone/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	Live Like Champions

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first ever GraniteShipping fic I ever wrote many moons ago - around August 2019? - and it's finally seeing the light of AO3 - what does it say about me that I choose to self-indulge in angst?
> 
> Anyway, heeeeere's Riya! For all of you who are already familiar with her, at this point in time she's not Lorekeeper yet (and she gets a head start on the trauma, good for her), but she still holds court as Champion - with her rock constantly by her side. Pun intended. For anyone wanting more of her and her shenanigans with her best boys, Steven and Wallace: it's all on my Twitter, same handle as this one!

“Good God, is it someone’s birthday?”

Steven dumps a cardboard box on the writing desk. It’s chock full of mail. “Not quite. This is the result of Wingull Express forgetting we’re out of town for months on end.”

“I’m guessing seventy percent of these are bills.”

“I already sorted them out, and that’s the seventy-five percent. Here,” he hands Riya a bundle of less threatening envelopes, “these are all yours.”

Fan mail, of course. She could tell by the type of envelope used, the long kind for personal letters and the occasional postcard, and the colourful crayon marks adorning the majority of them. It’s still rather surreal that people—most notably children—would look up to her as Champion enough to take the time out of their day to personally write nice stuff to her, but it’s easily the best part of the job. Steven is a bit of a seasoned veteran at this, but even he’s smiling as he goes through his sheaf.

It’s imperative, then, that she takes out just as much time over responding to each letter; reading each line painstakingly, especially the ones from the kids, so she didn’t miss anything—be it explaining the Hyper Cutter ability to a third-grade boy, congratulating the girl whose Eevee evolved to an Espeon, thanking the elderly man for his well wishes for her health. There’s a familiar Oldale Town address on a more plain envelope among the collage; she racks her brains before she finally places it.

Steven hears the chuckle and scoots up to the desk. “What’s up?”

“Ah, nothing—I just remembered I got a letter from here before. Young kid, I think about fourteen? He didn’t actually have much to say from his side than he did from his grandmother’s. She had been quite enamoured with me. To quote her verbatim: ‘finally, we have a Champion that is both strong and adorable!’”

He snorts. “I can hear Wallace getting offended from here. She’s not wrong, though.”

“I think that was all thanks to Shroomy, really. According to Dave—that’s the kid’s name—he’s her favourite among my team. And she wouldn’t stop talking about how he punched that Wailord to the sky. I don’t blame her, he was incredible back there.”

“So what does she have to say this time around?”

“Let’s see. Hi Riya… congratulations on finishing runner-up at the PWT, hope you had a great time there… you remember my grandmother, she’d been so excited when she heard you were going to face Cynthia… we watched the whole battle together, it was fantastic…”

Her voice trails off as she goes further down the letter, face falling at Dave’s somewhat strained handwriting. Wong, her beloved Vaporeon, hops onto her lap, the clever boy—he senses something is wrong. Steven reads the rest in silence, instinctively reaching for her hand.

It turns out Dave’s grandmother had been sick for quite a while, but even though she had been confined to the hospital, she got him to make sure she had never missed a single match from Riya’s run at the Pokemon World Tournament, on the one channel that got the license to broadcast it in Hoenn. During the final against Cynthia, she made sure to enlighten him on every move Riya used, and why it worked or why it failed, reassuring him she’d ‘still got it’. Two days later, she’d passed in her sleep.

Dave had written to let Riya know, with an additional request—that should she be free or back in Hoenn by then, if she could attend the funeral. The letter was from eight days ago.

She grimaces. There’s a drop in the pit of her gut. “I feel like shit.”

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up, we couldn’t possibly have known. It’s not the first time you’d miss a civilian appointment because you were out of town. Although, I don’t think there’d be any harm in still paying a visit.”

Riya takes a breath, pushes the chair back, and grabs the shimmering white cloak that signified her title as standing Champion of Hoenn, draping it over her shoulders.

“Then we’re going right now. Come on, Wong.”

* * *

The house is a lot less somber than Riya had expected it to be, but Hoenn folk are hardy and don’t much believe in extended periods of mourning—the impression was probably stemming from her own guilt on the matter. She sits in the lounge with Dave and Wong, while Steven talks to his father in the back. The young boy still has a smile on his face despite it all, which he mostly attributes to finally meeting her in person.

“You’re a lot uh, shorter than I thought you would be. Uh, no offence.”

She chuckles despite herself. “None taken. The camera adds five inches.”

“It does?”

“That’s what I’d like to believe.” She shakes his hand gently. “I’m really sorry for your loss. And I’m really sorry I couldn’t be there in time. We were still caught up in Unova, and—”

“It’s alright. No need to explain. I know how busy you guys are. And I can tell you’re for real, because I saw the way you battled. It was insane. And that must’ve taken some insane training.”

“It really did. I had to do my research with Cynthia, and underestimating her would’ve been a big mistake. She’s easily the strongest Champion region-wide—so it’s really no surprise I lost. Even so, this little legend,” she gives Wong a pat between the fins, “battled his heart out for me.”

“I saw the whole thing. He was amazing. That Icy Wind-Ice Beam combo was a stroke of genius.”

“Ah, it’s a little trick we learned in Johto. I’m just more impressed he withstood Garchomp's Earthquake long enough to pull it off.”

“Grandma loved your Lucario a lot more, though. Do you… do you have it with you, like, right now?”

She smiles and withdraws her smallest Poke Ball, summoning forward the dear friend she'd made along her Unova journey. “Meet Arya. Arya, say hello to Dave.”

“Whoa.” Arya gives a small wave with her paw, tilting her head curiously at the somewhat stunned Dave, who's taking in the foreign Pokemon from head to toe. “Amazing… that is amazing. No one at school is gonna believe this.” He grins. “Grandma would’ve loved this.”

“Hmm… Breloom, and now Lucario.” Riya shoots him a knowing grin. “Was your grandma partial to Fighting types, by any chance?”

“She was, actually. Now that you mention it… she had told me that day, right before the match started. She used to be a Battle Girl when she was young.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful. Dewford Gym?”

“Yeah. She lived on the island before she got married and moved to Sinnoh, then came back to open a shop in Oldale. My mum runs it now, she’s turned it into a bakery.”

“No wonder she was so excited I was going to be challenging the Sinnoh Champion.”

“Yeah, she’d still kept up to date on the local League. But truthfully, the part she was more excited about was seeing you in it.” He looks up at the young woman wistfully, stammering somewhat. “I guess I’ll let you know on her behalf, since she can’t tell you now. She says you reminded her a lot of her in her younger Trainer days, and that was what caught her onto you.”

Riya’s heard this line from a lot of older folks by now. “I’m flattered, Dave-”

“More specifically… she’d talk about your stance, as you entered the field, and the way you called out your moves, how you’d hardly break a sweat, but there was still so much emotion put into it all. I’ll use her exact words. ‘See, that’s the life for a lot of us Battle Girls. We can’t afford to get sentimental on the stage, so we make a brave face and beat everyone up. But underneath all that beats the heart of a big softie. But that’s what makes us truly powerful!’ And she was positive that you battle just the same.”

For once, the Champion’s rendered speechless by commentary from an older Trainer. The fire of youth is no match for the wisdom of experience—and this lady, who she had known all in the span of two indirect letters, had somehow spotted a core in her Trainer philosophy she didn’t know she had.

Dave looks concerned by her lack of immediate response. “Are… you okay? Did I say something wrong?”

“Oh, no, absolutely not.” She blinks herself back to the present, shaking the boy's hand. “In fact, you and your grandmother have been very right. I’m very glad I came to pay a visit. I just wish it had been sooner. There’s a lot I feel I could learn from her.”

“She’ll be very happy you said that. And that you dropped by.” He smiles easier this time, and stands up, returning the handshake. “I’m very glad you came too, Champion. It’s been a rough couple of days, but you definitely cheered me up.”

* * *

Riya wasn’t feeling nearly as cheery.

Her companions have noticed this.

Rayquaza is silent, perhaps reading her thoughts, as the damn dragon likes to pretend he can, but he’s not flying at his usual breakneck speed, just hovering in the updrafts somewhere between Pacifidlog and Slateport City. Wong is resting his head on her right shoulder while she absentmindedly scratches his back fins, ensuring he’s purring right into her ear. He’s saved her left shoulder for Steven, trying his best to comfortably spoon someone while sitting on thousand-year-old dragon scales.

The warmth from both their bodies is almost too much for her. Warmth around her where she had just left a house that had recently had it taken from them. She shifts herself sideways and throws her legs over Ray’s side, hugging her oldest friend and burying her face in Steven’s coat.

He doesn’t mind in the least that she’s crying, just ensures he holds her closer. She’s more than thankful for him, for staying calm even when the facade she’s put up for years suddenly broke down; but of course, he’s probably done this before…

“How the hell did you do this…” she stutters, between sobs. “Go in and out, hearing stuff like this, for years and years… and you can never forget a face in a place like this…”

Steven sighs. “I honestly have no idea. And when it comes to that, I can’t help but feel a bit guilty… for hanging up the Champion cloak, and going off to do my own thing. Feels a bit like I ran away from the responsibility of it all.”

“But you haven’t completely, have you?” Riya squeezes his free hand, frowning up at him. “You’re back in the spotlight now, and you’re still taking up Champion duties with me. But that aside… I don’t blame you in the least for feeling like running away. It is really quite a lot.”

He returns the squeeze. “Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it doesn’t get any easier.”

“I know. I don’t expect it to.” She takes a deep breath, and can feel Rayquaza giving her a nod of sorts. “But if I’ve come this far based on my strength as a Trainer, I need to act on that. Because it was never just about battling and winning, wasn't it, Wong?”

Wong gently headbutts Riya in response, and Steven gives her a kiss on the cheek. Both of which finally crack a chuckle from her.

“And you’re not alone. And for that matter, neither am I now.” He smiles. “There’s not a lot of people out there who know just how hard a Champion has it. They think we just sit up there in Ever Grande and knock the crap out of any unwary soul who passes by.”

“It’s really not. It’s much, much more than that. It takes some real ignorance to simplify it like that.”

“Right? That's why close-minded people like that would hardly get close to being Champion, no matter what region you’re from. That sort of power works better in the hands of good people like you.”

“And you.” She returns the smile. “I’m very glad I’m not alone, but even more that I have someone by my side who knows exactly what it feels like.”

“Me too. I’m very glad you fell into my arms in Granite Cave way back then.”

Riya scoffs, lightly shoving him in the side. “I fell on the ground, not in your arms!”

“True, but you found your way to my arms anyway, didn't you?”

“Idiot.” She's laughing now, and it brings a relieved smile to Steven's face. But she'd never doubted his ability to make her smile exactly when she needed it—one of the things she loved the most about him. “I love you.”

And knowing just how much she tended to take on her stubborn shoulders, he cherished hearing that laugh of hers.

“I love you too.” Steven wraps his arms back around his partner, holding her back to his chest. “Now… I think I can see Lilycove on the left. I think we all deserve some of those giant milkshakes, don’t you think?”

Rayquaza veers to the left a little too enthusiastically before anyone can respond. Riya shakes her head, laughing, embracing the little brood that was her source of strength, her home here in Hoenn.

“Yeah, I think we would all like that.”


End file.
